Plan for City Hall Deliverista Hub Rejected by Community Board
Community Board 1 (CB1) has resoundingly rejected a proposal pushed by Mayor Eric Adams and U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer to build a new charging station for electric-powered delivery bikes at City Hall Park.
The plan seeks to demolish and replace a newsstand on the east side of Broadway between Park Place and Murray Street, just outside of City Hall Park. The proposed new “Deliverista Street Hub” would house electric bike battery storage, charging stations, and seating for delivery workers.
The original October 2022 announcement by Mayor Adams and Senator Schumer—who secured a $1 million federal grant to create multiple hubs for the city’s 65,000 delivery workers—indicated that existing buildings would be renovated and reused.
The City Hall Park newsstand, built around 1980, is a product of contextual design meant to blend with the surrounding streetscape, which is part of the legally protected African Burial Ground and the Commons Historic District. The design of the proposed structure is modern and, at 21 feet long and 14 feet wide, approximately one-third larger than the current structure.
In considering the proposal, CB1 was lobbied by multiple interest groups. The City Hall Park Conservancy submitted a letter saying, “this initiative would greatly benefit delivery workers by providing them with refuge from inclement weather, access to electronic charging stations, safe facilities for bike battery charging, as well as essential services related to workers’ protections and bike repairs.”
But the New York Landmarks Conservancy countered with a submission cautioning, “we do not feel that the currently proposed design is appropriate for our city’s historic districts. The structure’s curved shape and cantilevered canopy would draw a conspicuous amount of attention to itself. It does not attempt to be contextual with the historic district or City Hall Park, nor does it attempt to be inconspicuous.”
At its March 26 meeting, CB1 enacted a resolution noting, “the proposed approximately 300-square-foot permanent structure greatly diminishes this highly trafficked pedestrian space at this important civic site at City Hall,” and “the location does not have direct access from a bike lane, and [the City’s Department of Transportation] has confirmed there are no current proposals for any new bike facilities on Broadway either as part of the Deliverista Hub proposal or as standalone project.” As a result, the resolution says, “the proposed building will force bicycle traffic to either travel north on the granite sidewalks from the southern tip of City Hall Park or travel the wrong direction (north) against traffic on Broadway, because the bike lane is on the East Side of City Hall.”
Finally, CB1’s resolution notes, “the proposed new contemporary building design does not complement the existing 19th-century historic style fencing and subway entrances currently surrounding City Hall Park,” and urges the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (or LPC, which must approve the project before it can proceed, owing to its location within the historic district) to “disapprove the proposal to demolish the existing newsstand and replace it with a new Hub/Kiosk/or any other structure as designed and presented.”
In the end, the LPC will have the final word, because CB1’s power is only advisory. That agency is scheduled to consider the matter at a public hearing on April 16.